One ordinary mom's mission to cut out processed foods.

Milk – good or bad?

We are all very big milk drinkers in our house (4 – 5 gallons a week)…and to be honest I don’t think we could live without it! The good news is after switching to a more optimal milk source and type of milk we certainly do not have to give it up. I used to buy the standard store-brand skim (for the adults) and 2% (for the kids) from our local supermarket. I even switched to the organic variety earlier this year. Organic is certainly better than conventional, but I felt there were still some additional factors that continued to be overlooked.

My biggest concern about the milk we were drinking was if it came from cows that were being fed grass. I did a post awhile back entitled “You are what you eat eats too”, and this couldn’t be more true when it comes to milk. Cows are actually designed by evolution to eat grass, and a large majority of factory-farmed cows are instead taught to survive on corn (a super cheap grain). In some instances the corn makes the animals sick, which is part of the reason why they have to be administered so many antibiotics.

Now if you are buying organic milk you obviously know that the cows have not been given any antibiotics, but being organic doesn’t necessarily mean they have been fed grass (or anything green for that matter). For all I know they’ve just been fed organic corn. But, the point is that I really didn’t know what the cows were eating when I would pick up a jug from the supermarket. Even as I proofread this article now I have to admit it sounds a little over the top to care so much about what the cows eat before I would even drink their milk, but it really is important. The health of the cow greatly affects the health of their milk (as well as their meat products), and I am obviously on a mission to provide the absolute best for my family.

So going back to a time when I didn’t know where our milk came from brings me to why I stopped buying our milk from the grocery store all together. I recently switched to a delivery service (http://www.lakeviewfarmshomedelivery.com/) that provides milk from cows that are located not too far away in South Carolina. Not only can I call and ask them questions anytime (and you know I do!), but I could even go visit the farm myself if I thought it was necessary to do so. There is certainly a slight up-charge compared to a half-gallon of organic milk from the supermarket ($3.84 vs. $3.49), but they say their milk is two days from the cow. And it tastes so fresh I absolutely believe it. I think my children even noticed the difference because once we switched to the new milk I was having trouble keeping up with their consumption…it was like a broken record around here “more milk please!”

One other thing I learned more recently is that skim milk may not be the best choice for my husband and me (our girls drink 2%). This came as quite a shock, because I drink a lot of milk myself and have chosen skim for as long as I can remember. According to our milk delivery service, skim milk is everything leftover after the cream has been removed in a separator. And apparently the cream is what contains enzymes and fat-soluble vitamins. So just like the process that white flour goes through (since removing the bran and germ also removes all the good stuff from the flour) the milk is fortified with vitamins in an attempt to add back what has been lost. So once again I think the better choice is to just consume the good stuff the way nature has provided it to us and not opt for something that just emulates the good stuff.

We are joining our daughters and have switched to 2% in order to give us a good balance between the healthy cream and fat consumption. Michael Pollan even goes as far to say

To make dairy products low fat, it’s not enough to remove the fat. You then have to go to great lengths to preserve the body or creamy texture by working in all kinds of food additives. In the case of low-fat or skim milk, that usually means adding powdered milk. But powdered milk contains oxidized cholesterol, which scientists believe is much worse for your arteries than ordinary cholesterol, so food makers sometimes compensate by adding antioxidants, further complicating what had been a simple one-ingredient whole food.

This once again reminds me how happy I am to be buying our milk from a reliable and knowledgeable source, which allows me to continue our theme here of knowing exactly where our food comes from!

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I was very excited today when I was out and about and saw a little store that had blueberries on sale 4 for 5 dollars. So I stopped to buy some. It was this cute store about 10 min from my home and it had tons of produce from and milk from a nearby farm. I asked if the cows on the farm were fed grass and the people said yes and went on to tell me all about the little farm and told me I really should go visit it. It seems every time I try to buy things locally, the people involved in the process are so proud of their farms and everything that they too want you to see where your food comes from. I think being resourceful we can all find ways to buy milk and other food in a more natural way.

I hate milk and so does my family so we don’t drink much of it, but at least what we use in our recipes and such will be a lot better for us.

There is some concern that milk after age 2 may be detrimental to our health with increasing risk of otitis in children, DM (secondary to overactivity of the pancreas in its attempt to produce enzymes to digest the pasteurized milk), obesity as well as gastrointestinal toxicities. Also, much of the calcium we need can come from vegetables.
Interestingly, we are concerned with getting enough calcium in our diet; however, countries in Africa and Asia with lower milk consumption have less incidence of osteoporosis; with the thought that the high protein in milk binds to calcium from milk, removing it from the body…possibly increasing risk of arthritis.
Also, one study noted that approx 75% of the world’s population are genetically unable to digest milk (lactose intolerance). These people are also noted to have increased allergic illnesses…

Hey Elizabeth – They say the milk’s peak performance is about 7 – 10 days which we have found to be true. One thing we learned is that it is important to make sure your fridge is set at 37 degrees or cooler and to not store the milk on the door of the fridge (which is a noticeably warmer spot). Milk is the only thing I have ordered from them (I get my eggs and cheese from Matthews Farmers Market or CSA box). I highly recommend using Lakeview for milk and you could certainly try other stuff from them too…we have been very pleased so far and I love being able to support yet another local farm!

This was very interesting. I was wondering if you have done much research on raw milk. I am very interested in natural and whole foods nutrition, and I have started to read quite a bit about the controversies of raw milk vs. pasteurized milk. It seams that pasteurization and homogenization of milk takes out at almost all of the enzymes, at least half of the vitamins, and changed to composition of the fat particles to be more toxic to arteries and veins.

I was wondering what your perspective is on this matter? It seams to be one of the most debated topics in food every. I tend to lean more towards the side of the more natural the better, but I always love to hear what other people think.

Hi there – Yes, I have researched raw milk and it is actually illegal here in North Carolina. It is true that pasteurization not only kills the dangerous bacteria, but it also kills some of the good stuff like you mentioned. The milk we drink from Lakeview actually goes through a process called “slow pasteurization” instead of “ultra pasteurization”. This means it is pasteurized at a slightly lower temperature than what you find with most grocery store varieties. So it is safe to drink, but still has some of the good stuff left in it. Even if raw milk were legal here I don’t think we would drink it, and I certainly wouldn’t give it to my kids (for the same reason I wouldn’t want them to eat raw eggs or raw meat). I hope that helps!

It was great to meet you the other night. Congrats on all your accomplishments. We order from Lakeview as well. Been very pleased so far, and I highly recommend them to your readers.

And there’s an interesting book that touches upon the comments Rupel made about osteoporosis. I’m reading it now, so I am hesitant to share my perspective until I finish it. You might want to give it a quick look. It’s titled Building Bone Vitality by Amy Joy Lanou and Michael Castleman. The hook on the cover reads “Why calcium, estrogen and drugs are NOT the answer.”

Lisa- since reading your post, I have been so extremely interested in getting grass-fed milk that today I conducted my own research on where I can get some in my area (Southern California). I came upon this website that talks about their pasture fed cows, and how its not natural for cows to be grass-fed year round. This farm was not alone in its stance, in my research I read a lot of farms’/dairy websites that had similar feeding techniques. What do you think of it?

Are Claravale Farm’s cows totally pasture fed?
No. We feed our cows a traditional diet of hay, feeds, and pastures. Claravale Farm is a traditionally run dairy and we don’t think total pasture feeding of dairy cattle is appropriate for a number of reasons. Contrary to popular belief, total, year round pasture feeding is not natural for cattle and is not the way in which dairy cattle have historically been managed. More typical is for dairy cattle to get access to some pasture during the natural growing season (winter and spring here) and to be fed mostly hay, grain and other produce during the rest of the year. This is what we do at Claravale. In this way, farmers have historically taken advantage of natural yearly cycles of rainfall and production. Year round pasture feeding of dairy cows requires the artificial creation of year round pastures by intensive irrigation, which requires energy and water, both limited resources in California.

Grass fed cows produce milk that has an “off” flavor. The older literature contains many references to the fact that cows which are on pasture produce milk which tastes bad. It is usually recommended in this literature that the cows be taken off of the pasture for a few hours before milking to limit this effect. These days, this is not a factor with most milk producers (including organic milk producers) because the milk is cooked and processed before sale so it doesn’t taste good anyway. The effects of the grass on milk taste will be masked by the effects of all the other processes. Every year when our cows do get some pasture we always get complaints about the taste of the milk. At Claravale Farm, taste is an important component of quality so we don’t totally grass feed our cows, but rather give them a varied, traditional diet designed to keep them healthy while producing delicious milk.”

Lisa – This sounds similar to the place that we use (their cows are not 100% grass-fed year-round either), and I think the important thing is that the place you found has obviously put a lot of thought into how their cows are fed/handled (in addition to feeding them grass when appropriate). After scanning their site I think it sounds like a great alternative to milk from the supermarket…thanks for sharing and good luck with it!

I’ve actually been doing a ton of reading about raw milk after stumbling onto the Weston A. Price website and finding about the whole “real milk” campaign. We actually bought our first gallon of “raw” milk the other day, and it’s still sitting in my fridge since I’m still so scared of it! Haha. We did drink it and are perfectly fine, and I made my own butter from the cream (it was sooooo good and easy to do). However, you really should read about the history of pasteurization. People have drank raw milk forever, and it wasn’t until the early 1900s that people started pasteurizing. It wasn’t that raw milk was bad, it was the fact that people started feeding cows things that made them unhealthy, brought them into the dirty cities, weren’t being as careful or clean, etc. So basically, it’s not that pastured cow milk makes you sick, it was people causing the issues. I’ve spent hours and hours and hours reading about this the past few weeks (it’s been a slight obsession) and have come to the conclusion that raw milk from a trusted source is perfectly healthy (healthier!) than pasteurized milk. And I’ve also discovered that NC has a large “underground” population of people getting this milk. I think the biggest source is Milky Way Farms in SC. But if you google raw milk you get over 6 million results back, and a lot of people are trying to legalize it in various states. Also check out foodrenegade.com. She has all sorts of info about milk. And you can email me if you have any questions, since I’ve probably spent about 10 hours or more this month reading about it (my husband doesn’t even want to hear the word “milk” for awhile)

Wow, that is very interesting. I have only read up on it a little bit, and once I learned that it could be harmful (like raw eggs or raw chicken) and that it is illegal I just kind of stopped there. Thanks for sharing this additional info with me though…I always love to hear the opposing argument!

Oh one more thing.. did you buy the homogenized milk from Lakeview? When I bought the raw milk last week, it was of course not homogenized, and that’s how I was able to make my own butter. I meant to mention that there is a lot of controversy about homogenization too, since they alter the milk in order to make all the fat molecules the same size. They really know how to make natural milk and unnatural processed food!

This was a really interesting read, thank you. I try and keep a close eye on what comes into my kitchen, but I hadn’t given my milk much thought.
I try to buy organic when I can, and Skim. I will definitely switch to a full cream milk now.
We don’t drink a lot of milk in our house, as I don’t believe it’s good for my daughters asthma, so I really don’t need to worry about the fat content.

There are a lot of smaller local farms that aren’t certified organic (since it is expensive and difficult to become USDA certified organic), but that doesn’t mean they don’t follow the same core principles. Lakeview’s Dairy is located in Newberry at Bush River Farms and Bush’s website says “Our milk is produced without the use of production-enhancing, artificial hormones and is a nutrition dynamo.”

GREAT post! You just inspired me to learn more about what diet the cows that produce my organic milk are eating. And great info about the skim vs 2% milk. We recently switched from skim to 2% as a compromise between my husband and me. So glad to know there are other benefits besides the non “watery” look that my husband hates. 🙂

After hearing everyone talk about it I do feel a little tempted to try raw milk…but at the same time still feel uncertain about the dangers it might pose (especially for children) due to the supposed risk of harmful bacteria!

We’re not big milk drinkers here, either. Every morning I make a berry smoothie and use almond milk. My son is allergic (anaphlactic) to dairy, so he uses soy. However, we (my husband, daughter and myself) really like cheese. It’s really hard to find organic cheese unless I make a 40 minute drive to Wholefoods.

I live a bit out from the city and one would think that finding farmers would be easy, however it is not! I have struggled with the milk issue for several years. I switched to organic milk from the store, but then read many things that it wasn’t what it was suppose to be and I was wasting my money. I did meet a farmer the other day that wanted me to try goat milk. It is illegal, however, it is growing in this area. They say it is better for you and easier for you to process. It is also suppose to help with ear infections which my kids get all the time. Any comments??
One more thing…I live to far out to get the great bread. Any suggestions for those of us who have to rely on Kroger’s???

Also, in regards to bread if you find a good source it will most often freeze beautifully…so make a drive 1/month and stock up! Or I have heard from many people that a bread maker can make baking your own whole-wheat bread easy (and cheap).

As I began reading this, I was dismayed to see that you were apparently touting skim milk. I was then relieved when you repented that folly.

To paraphrase your statement about cows, people are actually designed by evolution to consume fat. What is more, we were designed to consume animal fat, not processed vegetable fats. Contrary to widespread belief, animal fat can’t make you fat. Period.

And for people who are afraid of fat, here is the thing, regarding milk. Whole milk doesn’t really contain much more fat than 2%. 2% is NOT “milk with 98% of the fat removed.”

In fact, whole milk must contain at least 3.24% milkfat. Only1.24% more than 2%. I suppose there may be some out there with a little more, but not much, as that milkfat goes into making the more profitable items, like butter and cream; most farmers are not going to “waste” it by letting any more of it go directly to the consumer in cheap milk than they absolutely must.

And whole milk just tastes so much better. I really pity the people who have become so conditioned to disliking fat that whole milk tastes “gross” to them.

If you believe in evolution, you would have to know that our bodies were not designed to efficiently consume meat or fat but vegetables…. and I’m 100% meatatarian.. but just look at the difference between the stomach/digestive system of a dog, or bear, any carnivore, and compare to human.. dude, it’s crystal clear.

Hello Lisa
First I wanted to thank you for taking yourself and your beautiful family on this journey. I was born in Czech Republic and “whole foods” eating was part of every day life. We made everything at home, every day was fresh meals, and we would never eat bread that was more than a day old. My grandparents maintain a huge garden so we always had plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Starting in spring until the fall, we were canning, drying, freezing and making jams out of everything possible. And that’s what we ate during the winter time. So needless to say, this lifestyle comes very naturally to me. I just can’t believe in the 10 years I’ve lived in this country I got so “sucked” into the American way of eating. My husband is still very much influenced by the commercials and the labeling that promises to lower your cholesterol or help your heart. It is not an easy task to convert him. But I must say that last year when we visited Czech Republic, he loved the chickens running around – his absolute favorite.
I have been following your blog for over a month now, we watched Food Inc, after it was on Oprah so we were already familiar with the concept. We now cook and eat as much “whole and local” foods as we can. My husband even helps in the kitchen which has been a very nice bonus. He also brings lunches to work now, I think it’s because they just taste better than “eat fresh Subway” :-).
This past weekend we were visiting my in-laws up in Maine and to my surprise found the loveliest farm called Harmony Farm. The chickens were running around and the goats were so cute. The owner Donna Marie is trying to put her farm together so she can get her Bed and Breakfast license. She wants to host re-treats on healthy eating etc. She also makes the best goat cheese…. I suggested she tries a “working farm” weekends.
I was so happy to find her and even happier to be able to appreciate all the hard work that she does. Of course the eggs were amazing, the yolks bright orange. I am determined to have my mother in-law get her eggs there from now on! And we will be back every time that we go to Maine.
I apologize for such a long post; I am just so excited to re-discover who I am in the kitchen and at the dining table.
I believe what Lisa is doing is not only cooking and eating better, but she is instating values in her children that will stay with them forever. Congratulations and thank you again for drawing such great attention to something so important.

Thank you so much for your comment! After reading about your life in Czech Republic you have inspired me to try to be better at storing (canning, freezing, etc.) fresh produce out of our garden when it is plentiful. I always enjoy “meeting” (and learning from) others who are equally excited about rediscovering real food.

I live much further up in NC than you do and I’ve been traveling to SC to get raw milk for several years now. I used to get it through Milky Way farms, but switched to Tucker Adkins farms after a friend of mine that lives in Charlotte started getting their milk. My children and I like it even better than the Milky Way milk and it keeps a little longer.
As to the worry for your children, I can understand your concern about giving them things we’ve been told for years are unsafe, but I can assure you raw milk is not a bio-hazard in the making – unless it’s handled improperly, but that is true with all food. I drank raw milk for several years when I was a child (before we moved to the city), and my children have thrived on it now for several years.
I hope you’ll give the raw milk a chance.

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